Jenny Kassan

Jenny has over two decades of experience as an attorney and advisor for mission-driven enterprises. She has helped her clients raise millions of dollars from values-aligned investors and has raised over $1.5 M for her own businesses. 

Jenny earned her J.D. from Yale Law School and a masters degree in City and Regional Planning from the University of California at Berkeley.  She served on the Securities and Exchange Commission Advisory Committee on Small and Emerging Companies.  She also submitted the petition to the SEC that led to the passage of the 2012 JOBS Act, and was present at the White House signing ceremony.

Jenny is co-founder of Crowdfund Mainstreet and the Force for Good Fund.  Jenny is the President of Community Ventures, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the economic and social development of communities.  She also co-founded the Sustainable Economies Law Center, is on the board of directors for CfPA (Crowdfunding Professional Association), and authored the groundbreaking book Raise Capital on Your Own Terms: How to Fund Your Business without Selling Your Soul.

Michelle Thimesch

Michelle Thimesch has over two decades of experience as a business, real estate, and estate planning attorney. After attending Drake University Law School, she worked as a litigator and municipal finance attorney. Michelle eventually combined the practice of law and real estate finance when she launched a boutique hedge fund that invested in private defaulted mortgages.  

Following the passage of Title III of the 2012 JOBS Act—a law that allows anyone to invest in small businesses and startups—Michelle redoubled her efforts to expand access to capital for the closely held businesses she represented in her law practice. 

In 2016 when the final regulations for Investment Crowdfunding came out, Michelle recognized the magnitude of the opportunity to disrupt the status quo in the small business finance ecosystem. Two years later Michelle founded and launched Crowdfund Mainstreet, an Investment Crowdfunding platform for which she serves as CEO. Michelle has personally raised over $10M from investors and loves empowering under-represented entrepreneurs to embrace the process of securing investor capital on their own terms.